AEGEAN confirmed its contribution to the development of both Greek tourism and the Greek economy, through the launch of the new flight schedule for 2015. The new schedule of AEGEAN was presented by the management of the company during a Press Conference held in Crete, attended by the Minister of Tourism, Mrs. Olga Kefalogianni, the Regional Governor of Crete, Mr. Stavros Arnaoutakis, the representatives of local authorities, as well as by productive and economic bodies of Crete.

The new schedule includes a network of 134 destinations, 34 of which are domestic and 100 international, in Greece and 42 countries respectively, with 15,000,000 available seats, 2 million more than in 2014. The flights will be operated by one of the most modern fleets in Europe, which now consists of 56 aircrafts, following the recent investment in additional Airbus A320ceos. The increase of flights will be stronger in 2015 from the main bases of Athens and Heraklion, but it will also concern the activity of six other bases of the company (Rhodes, Corfu, Chania, Kos, Larnaca & Kalamata).

In particular, 10 new countries (Netherlands, Malta, Kuwait, Finland, Saudi Arabia, Estonia, Norway, Iran, Armenia, Croatia) and 16 international destinations (Helsinki, Toulouse, Deauville, Metz, Naples, Pisa, Malta, Amsterdam, Kuwait, Paphos, Riyadh, Tallinn, Oslo, Tehran, Dubrovnik, Yerevan) were added to the network of AEGEAN for 2015, while the number of destinations and frequencies in tourist countries such as France, Italy, Switzerland, England and German is significantly increased.

Special emphasis is given to the further development of the network of Athens, aiming to open new markets in new countries and new cities in traditional destinations, as well as the expansion of both the tourist season of Athens and the Aegean islands, which require the enhancement of the Athens hub to optimally boost their development. The effective extension of the tourism development in smaller areas, which is still lacking, is a special target for 2015. In this context, 15 new destinations and nine new countries were added to Athens network, while AEGEAN connects the Greek capital with 91 (61 external & 30 domestic) destinations in total, for which 11.5 million seats will be available. At the same time, the frequencies, the capacity and the connections to islands such as Naxos, Milos and Paros are significantly increased.

It is highlighted that the network of the Middle East and the wider North Africa and East, which includes a total of 8 countries (Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iran) will be enhanced even more through the new program.

Overall, 15 million seats for 2015 concerns 7.7 million abroad seats in 100 destinations and 7.3 million domestic seats in 34 domestic destinations. In this way, the full coverage within Greece is more assured than ever before, as well as the dynamic support of the incoming tourism in all regions of the country. Moreover, as reflected in the results of 2014, by supporting the enhanced network and the lower fares, the company presents a balanced development both abroad and in Greece, since the overall traffic overcomes the number of 10 million passengers for the first time in Greek companies’ history.

From Heraklion, where the press conference took place, the company will operate direct routes to 44 international destinations in 21 countries in 2015, thus continuing the consistent policy of developing and strengthening the region. Actually, over the next year, the scheduled flights will be increased, while 1.95 million seats -21% more than in 2014- will be available.

Finally, AEGEAN announced the program «12 months 12 good news for you,” according to which the company will present each month of 2015 a new product, a new service. In this way, the strategic commitment of the company to bring even closer families, and connect professionals, young people, and its loyal passengers is enhanced.

In the context of the press conference, the Vice-President of AEGEAN, Eftychios Vassilakis, stated: “2015 is a milestone-year for AEGEAN. We invest in new fleet, in a network of 134 destinations and we offer 15 million seats. We proceed with the powerful enhancement of the hub of Athens, but we also support the regional development through increased flights from our regional bases. We continue and we enhance our policy of supporting small islands, a policy that brought impressive results in 2014 targeting to highlight the multiplicity of the Greek tourism product. However, above all, we renew our commitment to the further development and diversification of our services in favor of our passengers. The new program “12 months, 12 good news for you,” signals the quality of our commitment to innovation, special offers and services in 2015. The combination of growth and competitiveness, but also the further development of our services is a common challenge for our company and our country.”